Ouagadougou Hotels
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Marking time in Ouaga
Entry 20 of 25 | show all | print this entry |
Not really too much to say about Ouaga - very dusty, which in combination with exhaust fumes and smoke etc. left a burning sensation in my nose and throat. One of the things that I hadn't realized is that with all the dust in the air kicked up by the Harmattan (the seasonal wind that blows in over the Sahara from the Northeast during winter) people get colds and coughs quite easily - not really a pleasant experience in the dry heat.
I managed to both get the email off to my folks asking them to transfer the money for the Festival, and get my Malian visa, so I was pretty much set.
The only other thing of note is that there are quite a few Baobab trees around in the countryside now. I've got mixed feelings about Baobabs - they're quite a cool tree really, if rather ugly, but they tend to grow in hot dry climates, so I tend to associate them with uncomfortable cycling conditions. I've included a picture of one with this posting in case you're interested. (Or at least I would have if there hadn't been a number of power cuts in Tamale, causing me to lose a large amount of writing, and to give up in disgust)
Oh yes, a couple more things about Ouaga that spring to mind. The first thing is the unbelievable number of hawkers around - it's virtually impossible to sit and have a drink in any restaurant that opens on to the street without being continuously approached by guys selling everything from kitchen knives to shoes to feather dusters. You can't help feeling sorry for them, as it looked like really hard work. These guys were so desperate to make a sale that all you had to do was glance in their direction and they would notice it and head over your way to see if you wanted to buy anything. A couple of days of this turned out to be a good way to learn just the right nuances to shaking my head with a disinterested look and getting them to move on to the next customer.
One rather surreal aspect when I was there was that since it was coming up to Christmas a number of guys were selling Christmas decorations, so it wasn't unusual to see people walking past carrying fake Christmas trees all done up with tinsel and decorations, and, even more bizarrely, giant inflatable Santa Clauses floating past in the traffic.
One puzzle that I only worked out later was that they guys walking past carrying trays covered with pieces of burlap sack were actually selling kola nuts, which they covered with the sacking after soaking it in water to keep them fresh.
Another couple of hawker 'specialities' that had me puzzled (and still do, to some degree) were, firstly, the guys walking past carrying a small sack, and clanging a pair of scissors together with a metallic ringing sound. They seemed to be offering pedicures, although quite what the market for that sort of service is, given the level of poverty around, I don't understand.
Another variation on this was the guys walking past clinking two glass bottles together. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe they were offering a sort of dry-cleaning service, with solvents of various sorts to get stains out of clothing. Not that I ever found out for sure though.
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